Thank you for your occasional emails, which I generally try to get round to answering eventually.
Here's a compilation of the emails that have arrived in my inbox so far this year. They're a mix of missives from lovely readers and requests from commercial interests, so a fairly mixed bag. In the interests of anonymity I won't be using the senders' real names but will instead work through this year's list of storm names as agreed by the British, Irish and Dutch Met Offices.
Agnes was quick off the mark at the start of the month.
Hi,
Hope 2024 is off to a good start for you!
I'm reaching out to you to arrange a call to talk about advertising options at diamondgeezer.blogspot.com. We would like to publish advertorials in exchange for a fixed fee. Would that be possible?
Agnes works for a Danish company that claims to be the global market leader for premium links, so spends its time pumping out content with embedded hyperlinks promoting clients' businesses. "We will surely have some backlinks that match your preferences," they say, which just goes to show you should never risk a surely.
Agnes got a one word reply, and it wasn't Yes.
Babet was after something for nothing.
Hello,
I am writing an article on the Museum of London Docklands for an article at <Adventure Game Co> and was wondering if we could please use your great picture with credit?
And this is a link to our blog, where I've written lots of other articles: adventuregameco.com/things-to-do
Kind regards
Babet works for a company that devises interactive Whatsapp-based city trails around London, Harrogate, Singapore, Vancouver or wherever. You pay them £15 and they send you on a treasure hunt with clues to solve, or £35 if you pick one of the trails with food samples from selected traders. It could be fun, especially in a group, or alternatively you could just explore London and look at stuff for free.
I did not allow Babet to use my Flickr photo on her website because she could jolly well go down to West India Quay and capture it for herself, plus I don't licence my photos for use in commercial projects. You tend to have more luck asking for permission if you're doing something charitable, community-based or educational, for example designing an information panel or writing a book. Not flogging text messages.
Ciarán noticed I'd made an error on the blog.
Para 'Cost is clearly a driving force...' has a coat where you mean cost. Rgds
Brief and straight to the point. I was much obliged and updated the typo within five minutes.
This is a nice way to point out a mistake, and I much prefer it to people who quote my error in the comments and whack a sarcastic question mark on the end. Be more like Ciarán.
Debi wondered if I solicit ideas for future posts.
Hello
The other day I was cycling back home through Vauxhall, and tuned in to the noises of the background, with the vast bong of Big Ben cutting through the rest. I was momentarily thrown - it felt far to be hearing the sound at first, but I reflected it wasn't all that far. Then I was thinking, how far from The Elizabeth Tower (or other sources of big Bongs) can you be and still hear them? It could be an interesting post.
It could indeed, although I suspect it depends as much on wind direction as on distance. A chilly northerly might well carry the sound of the bells to Vauxhall while Trafalgar Square remained mute. All I've previously blogged about is how long Big Ben's sound takes to travel, not how far. But you may have a better notion.
Elin had a fabulous offer.
Hi Diamond,
Hope you’re well! Happy New Year!
As we gear up for an adventurous start to 2024, we are thrilled to invite you to <International Music Festival> taking place in January 18-20, 2024. The line up includes some great artists like DJ Biggles, Zipstar, Boondollar$, The Hench, Wumpty X and many more. It’s a unique spot on the beach at a world heritage site.
That is a remarkably generous gift given that the music festival is taking place abroad and general admission starts at £60. That said it would cost me hugely more to fly there and stay two nights in a hotel, plus more importantly the event's taking place in a Middle Eastern country with a dubious human rights record so quite frankly two fingers to that.
Also I should say that all those bands are fictional, although the actual setlist reads similarly.
Fergus wanted to help with my Monopoly project.
You might find this photo useful later. I don't know the date of my set, but the instructions say send a 2 1/2d stamp with any queries, but don't give an address. The buildings are dyed wood.
I hereby waive my copyright; whether Waddingtons do is another matter.
Attached to Fergus's kind email was a photo of three title deeds in classic format - one brown and two light blues.
It might have been an ideal accompaniment to a blogpost but I didn't want to risk the wrath of the copyright gods. Tim Moore kicked off his book Do Not Pass Go by offering "a fitful round of derisive applause for Hasbro, who have ensured you won't be seeing a dog, boot, title deed or Monopoly board graphically represented within these pages." Best not go down the illustrative route if they're that litigious.
Gerrit's email was simply titled 'wembley'.
have you been there recently? its a sea of flats. quite mad might be worth a blog entry
Gerrit included a short 360° spinaround video to prove his point, and yes it does look like our national stadium has been surrounded by a dense forest of stackybox flats. I have of course been to Wembley recently, indeed I was there yesterday, although this particular photo was taken during the summer months. It doesn't show the worst of it.
I replied to Gerrit, noting that way back in 2006 when I was blogging about Metro-land I'd written this.
Eighteen years later that vision is mostly complete, and mostly grim. It's great to have a lot of extra housing, obviously, and some people do want to live in a neighbourhood where you can buy cut price trousers, eat saucy flatbreads in a shed, splash out on experiences and live in the sky with a view of a neighbour's brick render. But the whole area has a soulless vibe and a placemaking team trying much too hard to make it sound exciting, and "quite mad" might well be a understatement.
I suspect I'll write a proper post about the new Wembley to celebrate the centenary of the British Empire Exhibition in April. Thanks Gerrit.
